Ridiculous Stair Awards

We’ve all seen them. You know the ones. The super-sleek, super-sexy stair designs. The ones that, without fail, attract the design-minded like moths to a flame. We know them well; they’re always defying gravity with open cantilevered treads and enigmatically hidden connections. Handrails, when actually implemented, are a mere wisp of steel delicately gliding above the composition. This elite class of stair is generally white and always lead to some lofty, exclusive eden – a place where one leisurely lounges, nibbling on figs, admiring the stair. And they usually float above a pool of water or any variety of objects found in the “Dangerous To Fall In” category. Admit it, you’re fascinated by them.

It’s worth noting that these stairs bear no resemblance whatsoever to anything that can even remotely be designed, permitted, built, inspected, or approved within the United States of America. Not a one. No guard between the open treads? No can do. More than 4 inches of open space between guardrails? Negatory. No guardrails? Go fish.

For us architects it’s a cocktail made with equal parts frustration and envy –throw in a dash of resentment for good measure and garnish with a twist of cynicism. Each time we open the latest design-mag, it’s the same bitter taste: a smoking hot, totally unrealistic open-tread, cantilevered, guardrail-less stair. Did the building code finally change to allow for more flexibility in stair design? Or did someone figure out a clever new way to interpret the code? Maybe we missed a building code exception? Oh, wait,….it’s in….Brazil?

So it goes.

Whether this is our way of liberating ourselves from stair envy or simply an enjoyable exercise to poke fun at stair design that might as well be on Mars, we’re launching the inaugural Ridiculous Stair Awards. Here are the top ten “winners” in reverse order:

15 Comments

Hahaha! Great selection, guys. The average of spaniards fashion-stair and other items-victims is obvious and our daily battle. Guess this thirtysome clients never grow up having any disabling limitation.

Friends, it’s OK to look, drool, and even covet, like teenage boys leering over a men’s magazine. But simply because American codes disapprove of such pleasures, must you deride these sculptures of beauty and delight, calling them ‘elitist’, ‘unrealistic’, and ‘ridiculous’? A more mature approach might be to appreciate their mechanics and form, marvel in their delicateness and grace – if only from a distance – without denigrating either your desire or its object.

i’ve heard of some architects actually designing stairs with cheap sacrificial elements to be removed later at the request of clients [handrails, etc.]. i’ve even seen a completed house with all the permits approved for an open stairs without guardrails [I have no idea how!]. i suppose if all the adults are sterile, and no kids will ever be around, it could be OK [?] in a house. It would still haunt my conscience and be against my better judgement if I did get away with one of these crazy things. but damn…breaking all the rules of stair design can be pretty sexy! haha!

I too am guilty of designing & building a set of cantilevered aluminium stairs worthy of your ridiculous stair awards for my own house. Balustrade finally added when it was put up for sale along with a fence around the pool to meet our stringent regulations prior to sale.

@Build folks: could someone flip the blog software switch so the full text of your posts is in the RSS feed? Won’t affect anything except you’ll have happier readers who read a higher percentage of your posts. And thanks!

Actually, it’s quite possible to build these stairs as-is in the US, and have get your C-of-O as well. You just need to make sure you have a another fully code compliant stair to the same floor these stairs lead. The non-compliant stair can be considered a sculpture, and not a stair – I kid you not, because I have seen it done in NYC.

clearly, none of the owners are parents, nor entertain guests unfamiliar with scaling sculpture drink in hand, or perhaps the tie-offs for the climbing ropes are as well masked as the structure holding up those concrete treads.